smartpoetic Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Hey there! I need some advice. I'm working on an orchestral arrangement of Asgore's theme and the main theme from Undertale. It's pretty long, and I don't know if I should cut some of it or not. Any thoughts on length, instrumentation, etc? The only thing left I have to add is the ending. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k-wix Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 Hey there! It's a bit long in general, and the pacing just feels kinda slow to me. I get that we're going to for an emotional orchestral piece here, but it overstays its welcome and needs to develop into something more meaningful faster. I don't even hear the main melody in a recognizable fashion until about half way through the track. Your instrumentation is absolutely fine, the sounds are good - mixing sounds great on my headphones, no problems at all there - it's really just pacing issues. - I'd consider opening with the piano and cutting the first minute entirely. Not to say its bad, but it feels like it doesn't really belong. - Some parts feel just a bit too slow - don't be afraid to play with the tempo in certain areas. The later half is better in this regard, the early parts of the song are really where things get old quick for me. - The late buildup & climax are great (Talking about 5+ minutes in) but they need to come a bit sooner - and I could honestly see this sped up a bit as well. - Your drums could be a bit more pronounced in the mix - feels a bit soft to me. Also: More drums! They don't come in until 5 minutes, would love to hear them earlier in the track to mix things up. - The bit after the climax is awesome. THAT should be your ending. It is beautiful. Hope it helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smartpoetic Posted April 5, 2016 Author Share Posted April 5, 2016 14 hours ago, k-wix said: Hey there! It's a bit long in general, and the pacing just feels kinda slow to me. I get that we're going to for an emotional orchestral piece here, but it overstays its welcome and needs to develop into something more meaningful faster. I don't even hear the main melody in a recognizable fashion until about half way through the track. Your instrumentation is absolutely fine, the sounds are good - mixing sounds great on my headphones, no problems at all there - it's really just pacing issues. - I'd consider opening with the piano and cutting the first minute entirely. Not to say its bad, but it feels like it doesn't really belong. - Some parts feel just a bit too slow - don't be afraid to play with the tempo in certain areas. The later half is better in this regard, the early parts of the song are really where things get old quick for me. - The late buildup & climax are great (Talking about 5+ minutes in) but they need to come a bit sooner - and I could honestly see this sped up a bit as well. - Your drums could be a bit more pronounced in the mix - feels a bit soft to me. Also: More drums! They don't come in until 5 minutes, would love to hear them earlier in the track to mix things up. - The bit after the climax is awesome. THAT should be your ending. It is beautiful. Hope it helps! Hi k-wix! Thanks for taking a listen, as well as your suggestions! I agree completely about the pacing issues. I'll work on speeding things up a bit, and scraping the beginning. Also, you are definitely right about the drums... they are a bit thin. (You can tell that my weakness as a composer/arranger is percussion writing. I need to work on this more.) I'll keep the ending as is though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SegaMon Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Wonderful collection of sounds that you have here. You have also mixed the song well, in my opinion. This song is very pleasant to listen to. The song doesn't get "old quick" as k-wix mentioned. However, the build-up certainly could be done quicker. The whole piano part between 4:00 to 4:40 felt like it had no direction. This is another case where building a bit quicker would make the song as a whole better. The climax that was mentioned could use a bit more energy too (I love high energy sections). I'd be interested to know where you get many of these sounds. I loved the piano and trumpet sounds the most. I'd also like to think about working with you in the future. I saw in your profile that you play clarinet? I do too! Just keep writing music because I certainly enjoy listening to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smartpoetic Posted April 9, 2016 Author Share Posted April 9, 2016 On 4/7/2016 at 8:25 PM, SegaMon said: Wonderful collection of sounds that you have here. You have also mixed the song well, in my opinion. This song is very pleasant to listen to. The song doesn't get "old quick" as k-wix mentioned. However, the build-up certainly could be done quicker. The whole piano part between 4:00 to 4:40 felt like it had no direction. This is another case where building a bit quicker would make the song as a whole better. The climax that was mentioned could use a bit more energy too (I love high energy sections). I'd be interested to know where you get many of these sounds. I loved the piano and trumpet sounds the most. I'd also like to think about working with you in the future. I saw in your profile that you play clarinet? I do too! Just keep writing music because I certainly enjoy listening to it. Thanks, I appreciate it SegaMon! I think the issue here is how I composed the arrangement all together. I usually use a mouse to write music since I'm not exactly the best at piano, but I've been challenging myself to only write using a piano or MIDI controller lately to help "humanize" my songs more. I improvised most of the piece using a MIDI controller and Logic Pro 9, which is why it feels disjointed at times. (Because I also wrote things in sections too.) I guess you can say that this version is more of a "collection of ideas," haha. As far as where I got the sounds, I currently use: - Project SAM Orchestral Elements 1 and 2 - I subscribe monthly to the EastWest Composer Cloud (which includes like... 9K+ samples) Also, I'm totally open to doing collabs, so if you (or anyone else) is interested, feel free to shoot me a message! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SegaMon Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 I am not a good piano player either. This means that direct input via a keyboard has been difficult for me too. Thus, I do a lot via my mouse and QWERTY. I currently use FL Studio 12. What do you use? No matter, you music is still vastly enjoyable. Keep on creating and it will only get better. Thanks for sharing what instruments you use. I really am liking the idea of the Composer Cloud. Oftentimes is hard to slap down a large sum of money so paying a monthly subscription is a great idea for both EastWest and their customers. I don't have much time for writing music but I will message you when I have some collaboration ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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